Darien Depot Youth Center Hires Kesti Aysseh as New Executive Director of Development

The Depot - Darien Youth Center is proud to announce and welcome Kesti Aysseh as the new Executive Director of Development, responsible for fundraising, development, marketing and building awareness of The Depot’s mission.

Aysseh has been a stay-at-home mom for the past 17 years. “I am eager to get back into the workforce and continue to be an active contributor to our town,” said Kesti. Aysseh fell in love with non-profit work while doing an internship at Goodwill while in college. More recently, she has experience with philanthropy, development and fundraising while volunteering for a variety of local organizations including, The Darien Foundation, The Tiny Miracles Foundation, OPUS for Person-to-Person and the Community Fund of Darien. She is a past president and sits on the board of the Town of Darien Firefighters’ Foundation helping to raise over a million dollars for Darien’s three 100% volunteer fire departments. Aysseh also spearheaded the foundation’s sponsorship of the town's 4th of July fireworks for three years along with David Genovese and Jayme Stevenson, Darien’s First Selectman. Aysseh is a board member of the Darien YMCA and takes an active interest in special needs programming.

 “I'm thrilled to become part of The Depot team and look forward to collaborating with other local businesses and organizations to help broaden, educate and enrich the lives of our youth,” said Aysseh. "I originally was very interested in this position because I strongly believe the clubs and groups sponsored by the Depot, along with the volunteer opportunities and informative programming, is positively impacting and enhancing our kids lives. It's imperative for them to step out of the world of academia and athletics, and be involved in something bigger than themselves.” 

Janice Marzano, the Director of Programming at The Depot, will work alongside Aysseh. “Janice will carry on doing what she does best, and that is to mentor the kids, bring in the vitally important speakers and lead the clubs and outreach programs,” said Aysseh. "I hope to, along with the board of directors, raise the money to make it all happen!”

Aysseh was born and raised in Princeton, NJ, and is a graduate of The University of Delaware with a degree in English. Kesti and her husband, Gordon, live in Darien where they are raising their three children; two whom attend Darien High School and the youngest is in his last year at Ox Ridge. Before kids, Kesti was an account executive for Grey, BBDO and Hill, Holliday advertising firms in New York and Boston and worked on such accounts as Pantene Shampoo, Campbell’s Soup, Cover Girl, Top-Flite Golf and John Hancock.